Most School Budgets Defeated In NJ

Showing perhaps that they have finally awoken from the ‘do it for the children’ coma, or perhaps giving a hint that they’ve realized that that mantra means saddling those very same children with crushing loads of debt, most school budgets in NJ were defeated yesterday

New Jersey voters took a stand on school spending and property taxes Tuesday, rejecting 260 of 479 school budgets across 19 counties, according to unofficial results in statewide school elections.

In the proposed state budget he unveiled last month, Gov. Chris Christie slashed $820 million in aid to school districts and urged voters to defeat budgets if teachers in their schools did not agree to one-year wage freezes. The salvo ignited a heated debate with the state’s largest teachers union.

Christie said the cuts were necessary to help plug an $11 billion state budget gap.

In many districts Tuesday, the governor made himself heard as 54 percent of the spending plans were rejected, according to unofficial returns. If the trend continues, it would mark the most budget defeats in New Jersey since 1976, when 56 percent failed. Typically, voters approve more than 70 percent of the school budgets.

What happens next bears watching, because the towns can quietly ignore the results but I think a good and needed message has been sent.

This is clearly a big show of support by the public for Governor Christie and should encourage him in his efforts to tame the beast in Trenton.

Certainly schools and the Teacher’s Union are but one part of the larger problem of out-of-control government spending; he needs to maintain the pressure on them and train his sights now on the other unions and wasteful administrators and programs.

One Response to “Most School Budgets Defeated In NJ”

1. NJ Sue says:

   April 21, 2010 at 7:28 am

   Teachers are the low-hanging fruit here. To maintain integrity, Christie also must go after the big state workers’ unions (CWA) and also the corrupt multiple-pension-collecting government officials and members of “advisory” and regulatory boards. Oh well, he’s got three more years.